Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Jeremy Richey, the wonderful wordsmith behind the fantastic film blog Moon In The Gutter(and the Jean Rollin tribute site Fascination), provided today's guest list. Like Mr.Peel, if you're not already reading Jeremy's stuff, I have to recommend you check it out. Here's his list!

BUIO OMEGA(1979):One of the most unsettling and perverse love stories ever committed to celluloid, and one of the essential works from Italian director Joe D'Amato, Buio Omega is one of the great Italian horror films. It is a shame that D’Amato in his later life just referred to himself as a simple ‘business man’, because there is a major artist at work behind the scenes of his best films, and Buio Omega is his greatest. Featuring one of Goblin's great scores and a final nonsensical, but incredibly effective moment, (with the iconic Cinzia Monreale) that sums up my love for Italian horror as much as any other, Buio Omega is a dazzling and perverse work that never fails to unnerve and disturb.

DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS(1971):Kumel's unforgettable vampire opus with its driving Francois de Roubaix score and mesmerizing turn by LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD star Delphine Seyrig is the stuff of cinematic dreams. Erotic, terrifying and an absolute treat to watch, Daughters of Darkness remains one of the great meetings between the European art film and horror movie ever made.

DR. JEKYLL AND HIS WOMEN(1981):Borowczyk's unhinged and nightmarish retelling of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic is unlike any film ever made. Shot with a near unwatchable intensity and starring two of the great faces in all of cinema, Udo Keir and Marina Pierro, Borowczyk’s greatest film is a savage and searing vision of repressed sexuality that has yet to be equaled. Will someone please release this masterpiece on DVD.

FULL CIRCLE(1977):Richard Loncraine’s absolutely extraordinary film remains one of my favorite films of all-time and my pick for THE GREAT lost thriller from the seventies. A masterpiece of mood and suspense highlighted by Loncraine’s wonderful direction, the heartbreaking lead performance by Mia Farrow and Colin Town’s unforgettable score, Full Circle is THE movie and the fact that it still is so hard to find is unacceptable.

LEMORA: A CHILD’S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL(1973):I adore this film, I absolutely love it. Under Blackburn's great stylish direction, the much missed Cheryl Rainbeaux Smith delivers one of the most unforgettable genre performances of the seventies and I could frankly watch her for hours in this film and never get bored. Haunting, complex and absolutely gorgeous to look at, Lemora is one of American Horror’s crowning achievements.

NIGHT SCHOOL(1981):The most underrated slasher film of the early eighties and one of the ones most closely associated with the Italian Giallo, Night School is a real oddity that manages to be both scary and perverse as well as incredibly entertaining.

STIR OF ECHOES(1999):Buried under all the attention granted to the inferior The Sixth Sense, David Koepp’s Stir of Echoes is one of the great modern fright films. Graced by a powerful lead turn by a never-better Kevin Bacon, the moving and stylish Stir of Echoes gets better and better with each viewing and it remains one of the most undervalued works of the nineties.

SYMPTOMS(1974):A smash at Cannes that seemed to disappear immediately after, Jose Larraz’s SYMPTOMS is one of the most disturbing and haunting films I have ever seen and a perfect companion piece to more well-known works like Polanski’s Repulsion and Bava’s Shock.

THE IRON ROSE(1973):Jean Rollin’s most lyrical and mesmerizing film is a near silent masterpiece driven by an astonishing performance by Francoise Pascal and Rollin’s gripping direction that is smart, stylish and poetic.

THE SHUTTERED ROOM(1967):Thanks to a DVD from a couple of years back, The Shuttered Room was finally able to find an audience beyond the fans like me who have been haunted by it for years after seeing it on late night TV as a youth. Featuring lovely Carol Lynley in one of her greatest roles and a beautifully savage Oliver Reed, The Shuttered Room remains one of the sixties greatest undervalued treasures.

6 comments:

Yeah J.D. I dug that pick too. I totally recall seeing NIGHT SCHOOL in many a video store horror section. Seems to have slipped away a bit though as somehow it never got a dvd release. I think maybe Paramount holds the rights so that makes sense as they don't have a burn on demand service yet do they? I am sure they could sell copies of this film!

Whoa, some truly obscure choices on this list! Im gonna try and get my hands on DAughters of DArkness (been stalling with that one for too long) and Full Circle, which I'd never heard of, but intrigues me.

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